What is the goal of implementing quality gates in the deployment process?

Implementing quality gates in the deployment process serves a crucial role in controlling code quality before deployment. Quality gates act as checkpoints that enforce specific criteria and standards that must be met prior to code being released to production. This includes ensuring that the code adheres to established coding standards, passes automated tests, meets performance benchmarks, and fulfills other criteria that define high-quality software.

By integrating these quality gates, organizations can minimize the risk of deploying flawed code, which might lead to bugs, degraded performance, and negative user experiences. The proactive identification of issues helps maintain a stable and reliable product, ultimately leading to greater customer satisfaction and reduced technical debt.

While other aspects, such as completing user stories, enabling automated testing, and managing user story assignments are important in a software development life cycle, they do not specifically address the control of code quality prior to deployment, which is the primary focus of quality gates.